The Mod House:

While riding a bike around the neighborhood you see various periods of architecture. The older section where I live has Victorian houses and turn of the century cottages and bungalows. We have a park just about every two blocks and one big park right smack in the middle, Central Park. Not really Central Park but a bayou, a water Central Park as it were and not a public park at that but more of a private central water park. The bayou bisects an entire part of town. It’s a small section of town but because of the central water park you have to travel all the way around. There’s no way through it or across it so it makes the whole thing feel huge.

Anyway, there is this one house that sits on the bayou and every time I pass it and look at the mitered glass with the wood cut inserts and the horizontal bands of brick and the flat roof line, I wonder who built this masterpiece? It looks to be the work of Frank Lloyd Wright but I know it’s not and is in essence an imposter, a really good imposter.

Guess what I found on the multiple listing services? That’s right the Wright knockoff. Turns out it was built by a totally important architect, John Randal McDonald. It lists for $850,000.00. Take the virtual tour here. Buy it for me here.

At first I laughed at the huge price taggery. Most of the houses on the water are around $500,000.00 and up. The ones across the street are more like $250,000.00.

After the shock wore off and considering the primo location, the architectural provenance, and the fact that it has never been touched or remodeled. At that price there is no room to spruce it up or turn a profit. I have to say it is probably a good buy at around $550. It would be a shame if someone came in and changed everything but it kind of needs an update. But I like it unspoiled.